For years (since our first trip in 2007), we have been obeying God by traveling to the DR and involving ourselves in various kinds of ministry there. We tried our best to help in various ways, as God showed us. Medical help, school supplies, building materials, teams, and finances.
Some trips were frustrating and fruit was not what we hoped. For example, I took a large outreach team and materials, and we covered the town with flyers and invitations to an evening evangelism event. But when evening came and dozens of guests showed up, the power went out in the whole town just minutes after opening the service. "No problem", said the unstoppable Pastor Guillermo, "we have a generator".
Except the gasoline to power the generator had been stolen out of the tank right under our noses! "No problem", Pastor Guillermo said again. "We'll send someone to get some gas". But the gas station had no power to pump gas! 90 minutes later when we got the service underway, most guests had left.
Frustrating.
Refusing to be beaten, we kept doing what we could, while more and more people got saved in each little event. Then in about 2008, we held out first outdoor festival, which thousands attended and about 1000 people made decisions for Christ! Every church in town had standing room only for a year. And churches started dreaming of planting daughter churches in the towns around Padre Las Casa.
1 year and a half later, we did a second festival, which more than 8000 people attended in the final night! 2000 made decisions for Christ! And I challenged the Pastors to think about planting a few churches. I told them we should try for 10 new churches, but if we get 5 I would be deliriously happy!
Last night I returned from training the church planters that resulted. I was praying for and believing God for 6 or more new churches to come out of our years of partnership there. It seemed like a faith-filled number!
But when Pastor Wes Shortridge and Mike Fleming and I showed up to do the boot camp, we interviewed and did mini-assessments on 21 new churches, almost all of which are already in the planning stages!
Now we need to find a way to get this done. There are serious obstacles in the way of these church planters, most of which can be removed by ordinary people, even from here in Central PA! Now I need an army of people willing to make a difference and help!
More on that later...
Some trips were frustrating and fruit was not what we hoped. For example, I took a large outreach team and materials, and we covered the town with flyers and invitations to an evening evangelism event. But when evening came and dozens of guests showed up, the power went out in the whole town just minutes after opening the service. "No problem", said the unstoppable Pastor Guillermo, "we have a generator".
Except the gasoline to power the generator had been stolen out of the tank right under our noses! "No problem", Pastor Guillermo said again. "We'll send someone to get some gas". But the gas station had no power to pump gas! 90 minutes later when we got the service underway, most guests had left.
Frustrating.
Refusing to be beaten, we kept doing what we could, while more and more people got saved in each little event. Then in about 2008, we held out first outdoor festival, which thousands attended and about 1000 people made decisions for Christ! Every church in town had standing room only for a year. And churches started dreaming of planting daughter churches in the towns around Padre Las Casa.
1 year and a half later, we did a second festival, which more than 8000 people attended in the final night! 2000 made decisions for Christ! And I challenged the Pastors to think about planting a few churches. I told them we should try for 10 new churches, but if we get 5 I would be deliriously happy!
Last night I returned from training the church planters that resulted. I was praying for and believing God for 6 or more new churches to come out of our years of partnership there. It seemed like a faith-filled number!
But when Pastor Wes Shortridge and Mike Fleming and I showed up to do the boot camp, we interviewed and did mini-assessments on 21 new churches, almost all of which are already in the planning stages!
Now we need to find a way to get this done. There are serious obstacles in the way of these church planters, most of which can be removed by ordinary people, even from here in Central PA! Now I need an army of people willing to make a difference and help!
More on that later...
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